Visual Resources
phone-313.664.7643
Marian Lambers
Visual Resource Curator
313.664.7643
Visual Resources, located in the CCS Library, manages the content of a digital image database with approximately 188,000 images for teaching and research purposes. The database can be accessed online. (http://luna.collegeforcreativestudies.edu/luna/servlet) Our software also allows the user to pull in images from Flickr, enabling personal collections to be included in classroom presentations. Faculty must obtain training and sign a copyright agreement with Academic Technologies (664-1500 or 664-1501) in order to obtain high-resolution images.
Hours: 8:30 - 5:00, Monday through Friday.
Our digital image database consists of ten collections. CCS Images for Teaching contains approximately 46,000 images (the number grows weekly) and resides permanently on a local server. AMICA, a very large subscription database, is a consortium of 21 museums that supplies over 105,000 high-resolution images via the Internet. Recently, we added eight more small collections bringing our holdings to around 286,000. All use the Luna software program that organizes and allows the user to search the collections separately or simultaneously.
Luna software enables the user to search for images in a variety of ways (artist, type, period, subject, keyword, etc.) It also provides a teaching component for classroom presentation, eliminating the need to import images into PowerPoint. The teaching component includes a “zoom in” feature, the ability to place multiple images on the screen, and the availability of instant facts. For study purposes, faculty can export images from Luna in a number of formats and then import them into Blackboard.
Visual Resources is committed to scanning or purchasing the highest quality images available. By comparison, images downloaded from the internet are typically low resolution and appear fuzzy when projected onto a large classroom screen.
In order to protect the rights of our providers (artists, photographers, museums, and vendors), image use must be restricted to educational purposes at CCS. Therefore, users are required to sign a contract prior to being given access to high resolution images.
Students are encouraged to use Luna for study and classroom presentations. When they access the collections using a self registered or generic class password, the image resolution will not be suitable for large screen viewing. This is due to copyright restrictions. However, instructors can access the student’s presentations in the classroom with their personal passwords. This will allow the presentations to be viewed in high resolution. Faculty passwords may not be shared.
Faculty can request that specific images be added to the CCS Images for Teaching digital image collection. In most cases, a reasonable number of images (up to 35) can be scanned, catalogued and loaded within two weeks. Feel free to speak to the Visual Resources Curator directly concerning your needs (lambers@collegeforcreativestudies.eduor 664-7643.) Faculty will be asked to check the image databank, be specific, provide the source and submit a typewritten form. Faculty members are encouraged to scan personal analogue slides themselves and open up a Flickr (www.flickr.com) account for access in tandem with Luna.
For Luna training, software questions and classroom setup instruction contact Laurie Evans (Director, Academic Technologies) at 664-1501 or Frank Parker (Administrative Assistant) at 664-1500. If the system is down, contact the IT helpdesk through Blackboard. Nighttime help is also available by calling Academic Technologies at 664-7645. For image request forms, content questions and search help contact Marian Lambers (Visual Resources Curator) at 664-7643.